Hell in a Handbag Productions is pleased to continue its 15th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of BEWILDERED, a musical parody of the classic TV sitcom Bewitched, told from the perspective of Gladys Kravitz, Samantha Stephens’ iconic nosy neighbor. Featuring a book by Ron Weaver, music and lyrics by Aaron Benham and Ron Weaver and direction and choreography by Brigitte Ditmars, BEWILDERED will play September 27 – November 11, 2017 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.handbagproductions.org and stage773.com, by calling (773) 327-5252 or in person at the Stage 773 box office.

A parody and reimagining of the beloved ‘60s/‘70s television sitcom Bewitched, this spellbinding throwback is told from the point of view of Gladys Kravitz, the poor, misunderstood neighbor who keeps seeing crazy things at the home of Samantha Stephens, a beautiful witch, and her ‘ordinary family.’ Gladys’ husband Abner has had enough and is about to take drastic measures. Can Gladys prove her visions are real without destroying the Stephens family – or is she doomed to a life of pills and institutions? Gladys finally gets her due in this fun and magical musical parody.

BEWILDERED features ensemble members David Cerda as Endora, Caitlin Jackson as Gladys Kravitz, Ed Jones as Uncle Arthur, Michael S. Miller as Mr. Tumer and AJ Wright as Darrin G. The production also features Steve Kimbrough as Larry Tate, Matt Miles as Abner, Elizabeth Morgan as Samantha, Scott Sawa as Darrin S. and Robert Williams as Tabitha/Louise. Rounding out the cast are Kira Gaudynski, Jennifer Ledesma, Travis Monroe Neese and Sarah Taylor as Magic Stage Hands.

Location: Stage 773 (Box Theater), 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in ChicagoDates: Previews: Wednesday, September 27 at 7:30 pm, Thursday, September 28 at 7:30 pm, Friday, September 29 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, September 30 at 7:30 pmRegular run: Thursday, October 5 – Saturday, November 11, 2017Curtain Times: Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will not be a performance on Sunday, October 15 due to Handbag’s Annual Benefit.Special Halloween Show: Tuesday, October 31 at 7:30 pmTickets: Previews $22 in advance ($25 at door). Regular run $34 in advance ($39 at door). Tickets are currently available at www.handbagproductions.org and stage773.com, by calling 773-327-5252, or in person at the Stage 773 box office.

Hell in a Handbag Productions, now celebrating its 15th Anniversary Season, is pleased to announce casting for the world premiere of BEWILDERED, a musical parody of the classic TV sitcom Bewitched, told from the perspective of Gladys Kravitz, Samantha Stephens’ iconic nosy neighbor.

BEWILDERED will feature ensemble members David Cerda as Endora, Caitlin Jackson as Gladys Kravitz, Ed Jones as Uncle Arthur, Michael S. Miller as Mr. Tumer and AJ Wright as Darrin G. The production also features Steve Kimbrough as Larry Tate, Matt Miles as Abner, Elizabeth Morgan as Samantha, Scott Sawa as Darrin S. and Robert Williams as Tabitha/Louise. Rounding out the cast are Kira Gaudynski, Jennifer Ledesma, Travis Monroe Neese and Sarah Taylor as Magic Stage Hands.

Featuring a book by Ron Weaver, music and lyrics by Aaron Benham and Ron Weaver and direction and choreography by Brigitte Ditmars, BEWILDERED will play September 27 – November 11, 2017 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.handbagproductions.org and stage773.com, by calling (773) 327-5252 or in person at the Stage 773 box office. The press opening is Sunday, October 1 at 7 pm.

A parody and reimagining of the beloved ‘60s/‘70s television sitcom Bewitched, this spellbinding throwback is told from the point of view of Gladys Kravitz, the poor, misunderstood neighbor who keeps seeing crazy things at the home of Samantha Stephens, a beautiful witch, and her ‘ordinary family.’ Gladys’ husband Abner has had enough and is about to take drastic measures. Can Gladys prove her visions are real without destroying the Stephens family – or is she doomed to a life of pills and institutions? Gladys finally gets her due in this fun and magical musical parody.

Location: Stage 773 (Box Theater), 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in ChicagoDates: Previews: Wednesday, September 27 at 7:30 pm, Thursday, September 28 at 7:30 pm, Friday, September 29 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, September 30 at 7:30 pmRegular run: Thursday, October 5 – Saturday, November 11, 2017Curtain Times: Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pmSpecial Halloween Show: Tuesday, October 31 at 7:30 pmTickets: Previews $22 in advance ($25 at door). Regular run $34 in advance ($39 at door). Tickets are currently available at www.handbagproductions.org and stage773.com, by calling 773-327-5252, or in person at the Stage 773 box office.

About the Creative Team

Ron Weaver (Book, Music and Lyrics) moved to Chicago 18 years ago as an Equity Stage Manager at The Writers Theatre in Glencoe. A long-time fan of Hell in a Handbag Productions, he is currently working as box office manager at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, and on numerous other theatrical projects. Ron holds an MFA in Theatre Technology and Management from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. This is his first play to be produced.

Aaron Benham (Music and Lyrics) First time in the bag! Chicago credits: Side Show, Scottsboro Boys, Putting it Together (Porchlight); Xanadu (ATC); The Wild Party (Jeff Award), Carrie (Bailiwick Chicago); Always Patsy Cline, A Tribute to the Andrews Sisters (Jeff Award) (Theo-Ubique); also work with About Face, Chicago Opera Theater, Montana Shakespeare, Second City, Writers. BFA, Emerson College.

Brigitte Ditmars (Director/Choreographer) is a proud Handbag Alumni having performed in several Handbag productions including the original Poseidon! An Upside-Down Musical, multiple Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeers and originated the role of Mary Anderson in the 2006 production of Caged Dames. She provided choreography for countless other Handbag productions including multiple incarnations of Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, the original Lady X and the 2010 remount of Poseidon! An Upside-Down Musical, for which she received a Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination. Previous directing credits include Rock of Ages (Timber Lake Playhouse); Maybe Baby, It's You and Nunsense (Fox Valley Repertory); Model 736 (Collaboraction). She has received two Joseph Jefferson Awards for Achievement in Choreography for Reefer Madness (Circle Theatre) and Pinafore! (Bailiwick Repertory), as well as three additional nominations. Notable choreography credits include Peter and the Starcatcher (Metropolis Performing Arts Center); Xanadu (American Theatre Company); The Producers (Mercury Theatre); American Idiot (Northwestern University); Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Theater Wit); Hey! Dancin'! Hey! Musical! (Factory Theatre); Cinderella (Emerald City Children’s Theatre); Forever Plaid (Fox Valley Repertory); Improbable Frequency (Strawdog Theatre).

About Hell in a Handbag Productions

Hell in a Handbag is dedicated to the preservation, exploration, and celebration of works ingrained in the realm of popular culture via theatrical productions through parody, music and homage. Handbag is a 501(c)(3) Not for Profit.

Fun! Funny! Funnier! If you are fan of The Golden Girls TV show, then run, don't walk, to see Hell in a Handbag’s The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes at Mary's Attic before its special, recently extended, run is over. The show opens with a heart lifting, hug your best friend singalong of the sitcom’s famed theme song, "Thank you for being a Friend" - in its fantastic entirety!

Plenty of fans arrive in costume to see the show and in between the hysterically funny, bawdy, R-Rated "Lost Episodes” theatre goers are entertained by Golden Girls trivia contests with fun prizes, so live it up.

Hell in a Handbag Artistic Director David Cerda wrote the show which parodies the famed 1980’s sitcom where four women who share a home in a Miami Senior Community are not ready to stop living life to the fullest. Cerda is fantastic as the deadpan Dorothy even with the use of just one syllable – “Mah!" David, who recently won a well-deserved special Jeff Award (Congrats!) for all of his amazing contributions to theatre in Chicago with his much beloved production company Hell in a Handbag, evokes laughs with every shoulder-padded shrug and anchors the show with his dead-on funny accuracy in the role of Dorothy that actress Bea Arthur made famous.

I don't know how he does it but every single show David writes is unique, displays every cast members talents superbly, heartfelt and funnier than the last. In this show, he takes the iconic TV show and brings it to a new level, creating hysterically campy “lost episodes” that one could only wish took to the air during the series’ heyday.

Blanche is played with true southern sex appeal by A. J. Wright. Wright is mind-blowingly accurate in his portrayal of the flirty man-eater. Wright is so convincing, I had to occasionally close my eyes and just listen with delight, because I really felt he was a woman channeling Rue Clanahan, not a man in drag. The razor-sharp tongued Sophia played by Adrian Hadlock is also right on the mark with his dry as a martini, machine gun-like delivery of every single one-liner.

Ed Jones rounds out this fearsomely funny foursome with his always gentle, never forced portrayal of the delicate and ditzy, Rose, often forced to do and say indelicate things! Handbag favorite Ed Jones is - as ever, roaringly funny and true to Betty White's every gesture, even to her dazed and confused looks of naivety. As in all of Handbag’s productions, Golden Girls is equipped with a stellar ensemble, this show including hilarious performances by Chazie Bly, Kristopher Bottrall, Grant Drager, Lori Lee, David Lipschutz, Terry McCarthy, Michael S. Miller and Robert Williams.

Not ignoring the other fine touches that make this such a fun experience, Myron Elliot’s costumes and Keith Ryan's wigs and makeup are a laugh riot in themselves and really help each actor achieve the eerie accuracy that makes this a true golden fest for fans of the show.

David Cerda and I have some kind of strange psychic connection in that his shows always seem to coincide in some synchronistic way with things going on in my life and family, and Golden Girls was just what I needed to see. My mother and I lived in Miami Florida throughout my whole young adult life and the week I saw this production of Golden Girls (one of my mom's favorite shows to watch with me) she was in the hospital and I was extremely stressed and worried about losing her. When David says as Dorothy about her mother Sophia, "She's probably thinking back to her youth in the fields of Sicily," and then sighs, "God, I'd wish she'd just die," I had to let out a cathartic laugh because it was just such a perfectly funny, subtext of compassion coupled with frustration of the statement of all mother/daughter love when stretched to its limits. I loved it. Naturally, I don’t wish such a thing, but Cerda’s writing has a way of somehow finding love and humor in even such a statement.

I didn't stop laughing or smiling from start to finish of this uproariously funny take on the Golden Girls that no fan should miss. Even if you are not familiar with the show, it’s worth checking out. Don't worry, you’ll pick it up quickly. And like many Hell in a Handbag shows, there is an intermission long enough to stretch, grab a drink and use the restroom which allows you to really allow the funniness of the first act to sink in. Increasingly I find myself enduring 90-minute or longer shows with no intermission as if the audience is trapped in some kind of marathon endurance test of our concentration and bladders! But not at Hell in a Handbag shows, which proves yet again that David Cerda is in tune with everything a Golden Girl needs to truly enjoy a laugh packed night out with your best friends. Much Thanks to David Cerda for "being a friend!”

Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes is being performed at Mary’s Attic in Andersonville on Wednesday and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m now extended through September 16th. Saturday dates have been added for August. Tickets are $20, but are just $16 if purchased in advance. To purchase tickets or to find out more about this hilarious show wonderfully directed by Shade Murray, visit handbagproductions.org.

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